The ExFactor
by Isabel5
Summary: Jack/Nathan. Part four in my "There's Always A Device" universe. What happens when the ex shows up for a surprise visit?


**Title:**The Ex-Factor

Fandom: Eureka

Pairing: Nathan/Jack

Rating: PG-13

Spoilers: None, Set before season three.

Summary: Part Four in my "There's Always A Device" universe. What happens when the Ex shows up in town.

Disclaimer: Don't own, really want.

Author's Note: This is part four, There's Always A Device is the first one if ou missed it.

"No." Nathan smiled, grabbing the ladle from Zoe. "You can't just drop it in the skillet." He said and Zoe rolled her eyes.

"So this is sort of becoming a tradition?" Zoe asked stirring the batter. "I mean you did it for Dad, and then he did it for you and now you're doing it for me."

"Yeah, I guess it is." Nathan smiled.

"Birthday pancakes, awesome. Wow that's good." Jack smiled kissing Nathan's cheek then Zoe's. He grabbed his coffee cup and sat down at the bar. "Jo's going to be dropping by a box full of papers I'm supposed to sign at some point this morning."

"Dad stop it." Zoe slapped his hand as he reached for the batter again. "Is this part of the tradition also?"

"Of course." Jack said smiling.

"Ok, watch." Nathan got Zoe's attention. "If you pour slowly, you control the rate of flow and you can make shapes." Nathan intently dropped small amounts of batter on the skillet. "And there, a dog." He stepped back and surveyed his work.

"That doesn't look like a dog." Jack said looking at the skillet. "It looks like, it never looks like a dog, it looks like a blob of chocolate." He smiled.

"A blob of chocolate?" Nathan raised his eyebrows at Jack. "It's clearly a dog, a border collie."

"Oh a border collie…oh yeah now I totally see." He got up to stand beside Nathan. "There are it's little ears, and a sort of tail-like thing there, and no I don't see it." He admitted smiling. Nathan threw a dish towel at Jack and he smiled wider reaching for the bowl of batter.

"No!" Zoe grabbed it quickly holding it up to Nathan, who raised it over his head where Jack couldn't reach. Nathan smiled satisfied as Jack tried in vain to grasp the bowl of batter that was maddeningly out of reach.

"Being taller than you has some benefits." Nathan smirked.

"Yeah?" Jack smiled. "But I know where you're ticklish."

Nathan's eyes went wide and he took a step back. "Jack, don't." Nathan warned him.

"Give me the bowl." Jack stepped closer.

"I'm telling you this is not a good idea." Nathan said as Jack took two steps closer and grabbed the sensitive area around Nathan's waist and the bowl fell out of Nathan's hands and batter poured all over Nathan, covering Jack pretty well too. "You happy now?" Nathan tried to sound stern but it was hard when you were covered in chocolate pancake batter. "You've ruined birthday pancakes."

"Maybe not ruined." Jack smiled slipping closer to Nathan and sliding his arms around the taller man's waist. "I think I just improved the delivery system." He leaned up and kissed Nathan softly, he tasted like coffee and chocolate batter and Jack smiled slightly.

"Parental PDA." Zoe said from her place in front of the skillet. "I'm not sure I'll ever get used to that."

Jack turned to Zoe and smiled evilly. "I don't think it's fair that she's not covered in pancake batter." He turned and smiled at Nathan. "Do you?"

"No, not fair at all." Nathan took a step toward Zoe.

"No way, I have to get to school." Zoe tried to back away. "You wouldn't make me late on my birthday would you?"

"Weren't you begging us to let you skip school on your birthday just yesterday?" Nathan pointed out.

"There is a difference between skipping school on your birthday and being late because your dads covered you in pancake batter." Zoe held up her hands.

Nathan stopped dead and smiled slightly at Zoe. "Did you just call me Dad?" He asked.

Zoe smiled. "Don't fall for that." Jack warned him. "She's just trying to throw you off guard." The doorbell rang and Jack frowned. "SARAH door." He heard the door open. "We're in here Jo."

"Did it work?" Zoe asked.

"Pretty much." Nathan agreed.

"Oh I can't believe you fell for that." Jack shook his head. "She's been conning people since she was five and learned the puppy dog eyes."

"She really has." Abby said from the doorway.

Jack froze and turned around. "You're not Jo." He said confused.

Zoe froze at the stove. "Mom." She said quietly.

Nathan stopped smiling and Jack frowned. "Zoe." Abby said and Zoe ran to give her a hug. "Jack." She nodded at him and then looked pointedly at Nathan.

"You remember Doctor Stark." Jack said suddenly and Zoe and Nathan both looked at Jack confused. Since when was he Doctor Stark outside of Global Dynamics. There was a cough from somewhere. "Oh and SARAH." Jack nodded in the general direction of the house.

"Right, the house." Abby nodded.

"What are you doing here mom?" Zoe smiled.

"I wasn't going to miss your birthday." Abby smiled at her while stealing glances at Nathan.

"That's so great, we can make more pancakes can't we?" Zoe turned to her dad.

"I should go get cleaned up actually." Nathan said.

"Oh you can use the upstairs bathroom." Jack said. "Sorry about the batter mishap."

"Yeah sure." Nathan looked between Abby and Jack and something occurred to him, Jack calling him Doctor Stark, the offer of using the bathroom like he didn't use that bathroom every day, like Abby didn't know. He saw Abby looking at him confused. Abby didn't know. Nathan looked confused and hurt and turned to go upstairs.

"I need to…" Jack motioned to his clothes and followed Nathan up the steps. "I didn't know she was coming." Jack said walking in the room.

"I know." Nathan smiled at him from the closet. "It's ok."

"Seriously." Jack walked over. "I had absolutely no idea." He wrapped his arms around Nathan who turned around and moved away.

"Apparently neither does Abby." Nathan turned to Jack. "Doctor Stark?"

"I never…we don't talk that much, and when we do it's about Zoe, it just never came up." Jack sighed. "It's not like it's an easy conversation." He pointed out. "How exactly do I tell my ex-wife that despite the ten years of marriage, apparently I'm gay and dating the man that I spent five hours complaining about the last time she was here."

"The same way I told my Ex-wife, I had one of those too remember." Nathan pointed out as he climbed in the shower and slipped his suit in SARAH's laundry chute. "Maybe you don't want to tell her."

"No that's not it at all." Jack shook his head.

"Really?" Nathan looked over at him. "So the first thing to go through your head when you saw her wasn't how to ask me if I would mind sleeping at my house while she was here?" Nathan raised his eyebrows.

Jack opened his mouth then closed it. "That's not…" Jack crossed his arms over his chest. "It wasn't my first thought."

"Right." Nathan nodded. "I understand Jack."

"No, you're reading too much into this." Jack stepped forward.

"Am I?" Nathan raised an eyebrow. "Like I was reading too much into the fact that you wouldn't have dinner with me at Café Diam, in public, until we'd been dating six months. Like I was reading too much into the fact that for the first three months we were sleeping together you made me leave at four in the morning so no one knew?"

"I'm a private person." Jack countered.

"I'm not a character from a John Hughes movie Jack." Nathan shook his head.

"Who's John Hughes?" Jack asked confused.

"You have a teenage daughter, how is it that you don't know that?" Nathan looked at him surprised. "It doesn't matter, I don't need a grand gesture, I'm not expecting you to pull me into some toe curling kiss in the middle of Café Diam, I don't need that. I just need to know that you're in this." When Jack didn't say anything Nathan nodded as he washed the last of the pancake batter out of his hair. SARAH produced his newly dry cleaned suit and Nathan pulled it on quickly. "Well tell Zoe happy birthday for me then."

"Nathan don't be like that." Jack sighed and slumped against the counter.

"Be like what Jack?" Nathan asked tiredly.

"Hey." Zoe popped her head in the room and they both stood up straight. "You guys ok?"

"Sure, yeah, of course, what's up?" Jack asked.

"Mom wants to take me out to breakfast." Zoe said. "Is that cool."

"What about…" Jack looked to Nathan. "What about the pancakes?"

"Oh, well Mom's only in town for my birthday so we can do them some other time right?" Zoe asked Nathan.

"Sure, yeah. Go have breakfast with your mom Zoe." Nathan kissed her on the cheek. "Fargo just called, I've got to get to Global anyway." Jack stood up to give him a kiss but Nathan just walked out of the room.

Jack was halfway down the stairs when he heard Nathan talking to Abby. "It was nice to see you again." Nathan said.

"You too." Abby nodded as Zoe and Jack made it down the stairs.

"SARAH door." Nathan said.

"Have a good day at work Doctor Stark." SARAH said as he left.

"What was he doing here so early?" Abby asked confused.

Zoe opened her mouth to answer and Jack jumped in. "Work." Jack smiled shrugging. "You know I could go for some of Vincent's hash browns, what do you say?"

"Sure dad, come on." Zoe looked at him confused and then at Nathan who'd stopped at the doorway. As soon as Abby was in front of them Zoe glared at her father and Jack sighed.

* * *

Breakfast was strange, it didn't take Zoe long to figure out that Jack only came along with her so that she didn't accidently say anything about Nathan, that was obvious after the second time Zoe brought him up and Jack changed the subject asking Abby what she'd been up to at work lately. "Well that was great." Abby told Vincent as she stood up. "I believe you've got to get to school and I have some things that need to get done before your birthday party tonight."

"I'm so glad you're here." Zoe kissed her goodbye.

"That was a good breakfast." Jack smiled at Vincent. "Zoe would you like a ride to school?"

"I'll walk thanks." Zoe glared at him and stood up. Jack looked at Vincent confused before following her outside.

"Zoe, what's going on?" Jack ran to catch up with her. "What's with the cold shoulder?"

"I don't know, what's with the constant questions about mom's job?" Zoe turned around. "What's with the changing the subject every time I brought up Nathan?"

"Zoe this is between me and your mom and Nathan." Jack sighed.

"You haven't told her?" Zoe sighed. "When you asked me not to say anything six months ago I figured you just wanted to tell her yourself. I should have known you would do what you always do, avoid. Do you have any idea how much you hurt Nathan this morning?"

"Yeah." Jack leaned against his car. "I guess neither of us did really well with Nathan this morning."

"What are you talking about?" Zoe asked.

"The pancakes." Jack said.

"Seriously?" Zoe said confused. "But they were just pancakes."

"Nathans mom was never around." Jack said. "She was there, they lived together sure but she wasn't there you know." He sighed. "She was always going out of town. She didn't even realize until Nathan was in his third year of college that he'd graduated high school."

"Harsh." Zoe said.

"Yeah." Jack said. "The birthday pancakes were the only thing his mom did for him, every birthday she made him pancakes, fruit, chocolate, s'more flavored, whatever you could think of she made a pancake out of it."

"Oh." Zoe said.

"Yeah." Jack shook his head.

"Yeah." Zoe leaned against the side of the car next to Jack. "You need to fix this dad." She looked over at him. "Nathan is a part of my family and I want him at my party tonight and I want him in my life and I know you want him in yours."

"I really do." Jack told her.

"Well you need to let him know that." Zoe leaned forward. "You need to let a few people know that."

"Yeah, happy birthday kiddo." Jack smiled and tousled her hair.

"See you later." Zoe said as Lucas spotted her and headed their way.

* * *

Jack was distracted the whole morning and Jo could tell. She snapped her fingers in front of his face and he shook his head. "I'm sorry did our appointment at Global interrupt your morning of drooling and doodling?" Jo looked down at Jack's desk calendar where Nathan's name had been scribbled over and over again. Jo smiled slightly.

"What? No sorry." Jack stood up and grabbed his jacket. "Global, great, I'm on the way."

"We're on the way." Jo said raising her eyebrows.

"Right, both of us, why?" Jack asked as they headed to the car.

Jo just smiled and followed him out of the office. She was quiet the whole way to Global but the smile stayed on her face. It wasn't until they were outside the building and Jack saw Allison and Fargo standing underneath a large banner that Jack finally remembered. "No, no, no, no, no, no." He tried to get back in the car but Jo snatched the keys out of his hands and grabbed his arm.

"Ready Sherriff Carter?" Fargo smiled at him and Allison tried to hide her laughter. Jack looked up at the banner and read it again, "Flu Shots Today".

"They're mandatory Carter." Allison reminded him. "It's in your contract."

"Yeah?" Jack glared at her. "The only thing that's probably not in my contract is control over my afterlife."

"Actually that's technically not true." Fargo looked up from his PDA. "You're body is donated to Global Dynamics after your death for medical testing."

Jack looked at Fargo shocked and then at Allison. "I told you to read it before you signed." She shrugged.

"This is great." Jack said as he trudged to the door. "I can't believe you would ambush me on Zoe's birthday like this."

"Why do you think we scheduled it for today?" Allison smiled. "Cause we knew you'd be distracted."

"I hate this town." Jack shook his head and walked inside.

"Doctor Stark." Fargo said from the doorway of Nathan's office.

"I had my flu shot this morning Fargo." Nathan didn't even look up from his desk.

"I know, but there's a problem." Fargo sighed. "With Sherriff Carter."

"Yeah?" Nathan still didn't look up.

"And his flu shot." Fargo said.

Nathan sighed, resisting the urge to smile, he knew this would never work. Scheduling flu shots for the same day as Zoe's birthday was smart but not smart enough. "I told her it wouldn't work." Nathan stood up and sighed walking to his file cabinet.

"Yes, well I'm sure Doctor Blake has figured that out by now." Fargo nodded. "He's pissed off three Doctors already and his appointment was for four hours ago."

"What is it you want exactly?" Nathan turned to face Fargo for the first time since he showed up.

"I was thinking, well we were thinking that maybe you would have better luck administering the shot." Fargo said. "Seeing as how, well, you and Sherriff Carter, we thought it would be for the best."

Nathan sighed and shook his head. Fargo couldn't even say what they were, no one could say what they were, technically Nathan couldn't even say what they were. Everyone in town knew that Jack and Nathan were dating, but no one knew officially so no one would talk about it officially. "I'll be right down."

"Thank you." Fargo nodded and walked out.

Nathan steeled himself for the moment the elevator doors opened and was happy he did. "Thank God." Allison was standing right there waiting for him. She grabbed his arm and pulled him down the hall, through the maze of Global Dynamics employees waiting for their shots and into a private room.

"Allison, can I go now please?" Jack stood up and then froze when he saw Nathan walk in behind her.

"No, you're getting your shot today." Allison said turning around and walking out the door.

"Do you have to be difficult about everything?" Nathan turned to the tray next to him, pulled on a pair of surgical gloves and grabbed a syringe and a bottle of vaccine.

"I'm not being difficult." Jack said. "I don't want a flu shot. I don't need a flu shot."

"You're getting a flu shot." Nathan said getting the shot ready.

"Did you know that ten percent of people get the flu from flu shots." Jack told him, his eye never leaving the needle as Nathan worked with it.

"You just made that up." Nathan scoffed and walked forward. Jack jumped up and backed away.

"Maybe." Jack said stuttering a bit. "But you're about to inject me with the flu virus to keep me from getting the flu virus and that just doesn't make any kind of sense to me."

"Is it the virus that you object to or the needle?" Nathan asked knowingly. Jack swallowed, his eyes still on the needle. "Oh the big bad Sherriff afraid of a little needle."

"That is not a little needle." Jack shook his head.

"I do have actual work I need to do today." Nathan pointed out.

"Who's stopping you?" Jack smiled. "I'm fine, you can go back to work."

"Jack I really don't have time for this." Nathan sighed. "Just take the shot like a man and let me get back to my office."

"Still avoiding needles?" Abby asked from the doorway. Nathan and Jack turned around confused. "Allison called me, she thought I might be able to help." She set her bag down. "I'm not sure why, I couldn't get you do it when we were married, I'm not sure how I'm supposed to do it now."

"Oh this is great." Jack rolled his eyes. "My ex and my…" Jack trailed off. "Boss." He said, somewhat painfully. "Ganging up on me with needles. It's like my worst nightmare."

"Trust me Jack." Nathan shook his head sadly. "There are worse things that can, and have happened in this town."

"I didn't…" Jack sighed and shook his head.

"I checked on all the stuff for Zoe's party and everything's set." Abby said.

"Good that's good." Jack nodded. "You checked on the cake?"

"Yeah, Vincent wasn't done when I got there but he promised he would be by tonight." Abby said.

"If you aren't going to do this, I need to get back to work." Nathan turned and laid the needle down.

"Oh." Jack looked at him confused. "So no flu shot?"

"Spend half of the winter in bed with a stuffy nose and night sweats, see if I care." Nathan shrugged.

"Oh, well." Jack walked to the door. "Good, that's good." He turned to Abby. "So food, cake, and decorations all set?" Jack asked.

"Everything's under control." Abby nodded.

"Great. Well now I can get back to….Ow, holy crap." Jack grabbed his arm and turned around to see Nathan smiling and holding an empty syringe. "Did you just sneak up and give me a shot?"

"Thanks for distracting him." Nathan said to Abby.

"That's what I'm here for." She smiled at Nathan.

"That was, I can't believe you did that." Jack rubbed his shoulder and glared. "I feel violated."

"Don't be a baby." Nathan said peeling off his gloves and walking to the door. "I have work to do."

"Abby, can just give me a minute?" Jack asked. Abby nodded and Jack followed Nathan out of the door. "Stark wait a second."

Nathan waited at the elevator but only because he had to. "What is it Carter?" He emphasized the use of his last name.

"Look, this thing with Abby is complicated and I don't know what to do about it right now so."

"That's fine Carter, I'm used to it now." Nathan told him. "I just…you once said that you'd rather eat one of Vincent's Caribou burgers than call me your boss." Nathan shook his head. "So apparently you'd rather call me your boss than your boyfriend."

Jack sighed. "So are you still, I mean Zoe really wants you at her party. So you're still coming?"

Nathan turned Jack with an incredulous look on his face. "Of course I'm still coming to Zoe's party." He shook his head. "Whatever happens between you and me has no impact on mine and Zoe's relationship." He looked at Jack for a second.

"Right that's good, that's really good." Jack nodded.

"Is that all?" Nathan said as the elevator got there.

"Yeah, sorry, I'll let you get back to work. Uh, seven o'clock at Café Diam."

"I'll be there." Nathan nodded as the elevator doors closed and Jack reached his hand up to rub his arm.

* * *

Vincent did have Zoe's cake ready in time for the party and everything went off fine. "You haven't made it better yet have you?" Zoe asked coming up to stand next to Jack. She nodded to Nathan who had spent most of the party next to Allison on the other side of the room.

"It's complicated Zoe." Jack sipped his drink.

"Actually dad it's really simple." Zoe told him. "You love Nathan, Nathan loves you, I love Nathan and Nathan loves me. Everyone already knows, not that you'd bothered to tell them and they don't care. What makes you think that mom's gonna care? What makes you think that anyone would care?"

"What if she doesn't approve?" Jack asked quietly.

"Of Nathan?" Zoe laughed. "Dad he's the head of one of the largest, most scientifically advanced companies in the world. He's got three PhD's and a Nobel prize, what exactly would she have to not approve of?"

"His horrendous driving skills." Jack joked.

Zoe glared at him. "You know what I think this is about?" She turned to him. "I think you're afraid she will approve. I think she's you're last holdout, you're last excuse."

"What?" Jack scoffed.

"As long as there's a chance that mom doesn't approve, that she could make you choose between me and Nathan you'd have an easy out, a good excuse to back out of this relationship whenever you wanted to. But if she approves, if she doesn't have a problem with it then there's no excuse."

"I'm not looking for an excuse to get out of this." Jack said. "I'm in this." Jack pointed out.

"Really? If you're so in this, why haven't you asked Nathan to move in with us? You guys have been dating for almost a year now and Nathan still has to go home every two days to get clean clothes." Zoe pointed out.

"That doesn't have anything to do with this." Jack shook his head.

"It has everything to do with this." Zoe rolled her eyes. "I knew you were hopeless but I didn't think you were stupid." She clapped her hands on Jack's shoulder. "Nathan loves you but he's not going to wait around forever while you try to get over your fear of commitment."

"Wait, did he say something?" Jack asked suddenly scared.

"No, of course not, he wouldn't do that." Zoe shook her head. "But I can tell. You just have to decide what you're more scared of, committing to Nathan or having no Nathan to commit to."

Jack sighed. "When did you get so smart?"

"I think there's something in the water here." Zoe laughed.

"Then why didn't I get any smarter?" Jack asked.

"Because you don't drink the water, you drink the beer." She patted his back and walked over to a group of her friends who were screaming for her to open her presents.

Everyone gathered around the table and acted suitably excited about every gift that Zoe got. "This one next." Pilar handed her a box and Zoe tore into it.

"Who's it from?" Zoe asked as she struggled to open the box.

"Doctor Stark." Pilar read off the card.

Zoe opened the box and gasped. "No way." She said in a whisper before Pilar looked down and squealed. "No way." Zoe said louder jumping out of her chair and running across the room, throwing her arms around Nathan in a big hug.

Jack and Abby looked at each other confused before peaking in the box. "It's a computer." Abby said confused.

"Knowing this town and Nathan, it's probably not just a computer." Jack said.

"Thank you thank you thank you." Zoe was gushing still holding on tightly to Nathan.

"There something special about this?" Jack asked Pilar.

"Are you kidding me?" Pilar gasped. She went on to list multiple applications and different types of hardware and software that Jack couldn't understand but knew were most likely state of the art and pretty expensive.

"Is that an appropriate gift?" Abby asked confused as Zoe made her way back to the table to open the rest of her presents.

"What?" Jack asked confused.

"I mean he's your boss and the head of Global Dynamics, is that an appropriate gift for him to give our daughter?" Abby asked.

"Nathan and Zoe are…they've worked together before…and…" Jack looked over at Nathan as if somehow just seeing him would help Jack answer this question. It seemed however that Nathan was just waiting for Zoe to open his present because he was pulling his jacket on and saying his goodbyes to Allison. He turned and caught Jack's eyes and smiled sadly and Jack couldn't help but think that if he let Nathan walk out of the door to Café Diam, he was letting him walk out of his life. "You know what? I have to do something if you could just…" He didn't wait to see if Abby was listening to him, he walked away.

"Jack?" Abby said confused. He just kept walking.

"Nathan." Jack called out. Nathan sighed and turned around, unsure if he had the strength to deal with this right now. He opened his mouth to tell Jack just that when Jack got to him. He stood in front of Nathan with the strangest expression on his face that Nathan didn't know what to say. Jack smiled slightly and pulled Nathan toward him by the lapels of his jacket.

"Jack?" Nathan asked confused as Jack proceeded to kiss him like he'd never been kissed before. It was intense and at the same time gentle. It said everything that Jack couldn't manage to verbalize and it said it better than he ever would have been able to. Nathan dimly realized that the entirety of Eureka was in attendance at Café Diam tonight and that the restaurant had gotten suspiciously quiet from the moment Jack's lips touched his. As soon as Jack's arms wrapped around his waist and his fingers slid nicely in the small of Nathan's back, rubbing slightly in that way that Jack knew Nathan couldn't resist he didn't care.

It was Zane of all people that broke them apart with a wolf whistle and Nathan pulled back from Jack panting slightly. "What was that?" Nathan panted.

"The grand gesture." Jack said. "I Googled John Hughes." He said with that innocent smile on his face and Nathan chuckled. "Oh and you're moving in with us." Nathan raised an eyebrow. "I mean if you want to move in with us, I just thought I mean it is the logical next step you know."

"I'd like that." Nathan nodded at him.

"You want to come back to the party?" Jack held out his hand and Nathan slipped his fingers easily in Jacks and smiled, allowing Jack to lead him over to Zoe's table. With all eyes on them they calmly took their place with everyone else and Jack cleared his throat. "Don't you have more presents to open?" Jack said pointedly.

"Oh right." Zoe said with a huge smile on her face, Pilar immediately handed her another box and Jack noticed that everyone's attention slowly faded from him and Nathan. Then he noticed that practically everyone in the restaurant was either handing someone money or taking someone money from someone.

"Oh come on." Jack moaned. "Really?" He raised his eyebrows at Jo as she counted out five twenties that Zane handed over reluctantly. "Did everyone bet on us?"

"Please, like there's anything else to do in this town." Jo snorted slipping the money in her pocket.

"Is this why you've been acting so weird?" Abby asked looking at Jack intently.

"What do you mean?" Jack asked her.

"I mean asking me about my work at breakfast." Abby smiled. "You weren't even that interested when we were married."

"Are you mad?" Jack looked at her nervously.

Abby just smiled at him and kissed his cheek. She turned to Nathan and to his surprise kissed his cheek as well. "Welcome to the family." She said simply and turned her attention to Zoe who'd just opened a pink sweater from Pilar causing that high pitched squeal that only teenage girls could manage.

"You can breathe now." Nathan whispered in his ear.

"Right." Jack said, letting out a long breath and sighing in relief. "Thanks."

An hour later the party was slowly dying, people were gathering their things and leaving, only close friends and family were still hanging around. "So we did it." Zoe smiled. "We had a party and there were no disasters."

Nathan and Jack looked at each other in shock and then at Zoe. "I can't believe you just said that." Jack said sputtering.

"Spin three times, counterclockwise and spit." Nathan told her seriously. "Now."

"Oh come on." Zoe rolled her eyes. "You can't be serious." Almost at that exact moment Allison, Jack, Nathan, Jo, and Fargo's phones all beeped. Zoe's eyes went wide and she immediately jumped out of her chair and started spinning in place.

"It's too late." Jack laughed at her as he slipped his phone back in his pocket. "We'll be back as soon as we can." He kissed Zoe's cheek. "Abby can you get her home?"

"Sure." Abby nodded.

"Happy Birthday." Allison said as Nathan kissed her on the cheek and walked out of the door.

"Ok, I'm officially not letting myself have anymore parties." Zoe said as the door closed behind them.

Pilar and Abby laughed and helped Zoe gather her stuff up.

* * *

It was midnight before Nathan got back to the bunker, exhausted and covered in soot. "Zoe?" He called quietly when he saw her sitting on the couch in the dark. "It was just a small explosion. Your dad should be right behind me, he had some paperwork to fill out." When she didn't say anything or move Nathan got worried and he moved to the couch to sit down. "Zoe, you ok?"

"She doesn't want me." Zoe said.

"What?" Nathan sat on the couch.

"My mom doesn't want me to live with her. I mean I don't want to go back but she didn't even bring it up this time, she didn't fight for me." Zoe wiped her eyes.

"She wants you Zoe." Nathan smiled sadly at her. "She always wants you to be there, but see it from her point of view. When you left her, you were being hauled in every other day on some misdemeanor charge, you were running away constantly, acting out. But now look at you. You're on the honor roll, in a school full of genius'. You've got a job, you're responsible, you're going really good here."

Zoe looked up and smiled slightly. "Yeah so."

"So what kind of mother would she be to take you out of this environment?" Nathan asked. "As much as it tears her up to be apart from you, she knows that this is the best place for you."

"You think?" Zoe asked.

"I know." Nathan said. "Trust me." He put an arm around Zoe and she leaned against Nathan's shoulder. "Better."

"A little." Zoe admitted.

"Would some hot chocolate make you feel better?"

"You know what would make me feel better?" Zoe asked.

"What?" Nathan said.

"Pancakes." Zoe said.

Nathan smiled. "It's midnight." He pointed out.

"I know it's not the tradition." Zoe said. "But it's our tradition, who says we can't change it."

"I would like that." Nathan smiled at her.

* * *

"There's no way that's a horse." Zoe said laughing. "It doesn't even look like an animal."

"Oh and yours is supposed to be a motorcycle?" Nathan said. "In what universe? Dr. Suess?"

Zoe laughed hard and the lights came on. "What is going on here?" Jack asked coming in the house.

"Midnight birthday pancakes." Zoe said. "Come settle a bet." Zoe grabbed his arm and pulled him into the kitchen. "Which one looks closest? The motorcycle or the horse?"

Jack stared at the skillet and tilted his head sideways. "That one, the horse." Jack said. "Definitely."

"Dad." Zoe laughed. "That's the motorcycle."

"Are you sure?" Jack asked.

"What horse has wheels?" Zoe asked.

"I just thought he had really big feet." Jack laughed as Zoe threw a pot holder at him.

"Fine, you make something." Nathan said handing the ladle to him.

"All right." Jack said. "Back up. Give me some room." He very intently dropped batter onto the skillet then stepped back. Zoe and Nathan both looked at his perfectly round pancake then at Jack and put their hands on their hips. "What?" He said smiling. "It's a baseball."


End file.
